Ages 6 Months - 3 Years

In swim starters children develop body awareness, independence, water safety skills and comfort in the water through fun games, activities and confidence-building experiences. Parents and children also learn essential water safety skills. Close supervision is the best way to prevent drowning. Parents learn how to supervise children in the water, how to prevent accidents, and how to plan for emergencies.

Ages 3 Years - 12 Years

In Swim Basics, students develop a high level of comfort in the water by practicing safe water habits, engaging in underwater exploration, and learning how to swim to safety and exit if they fall into a body of water. By the end of this series of stages students will build endurance to be able to swim 15 yards each of their front stroke and back stroke as well at use the ‘swim, float, swim’ technique to swim 25 yards (one length of the pool) independently. Swimmers will also master the ‘jump, push, turn, grab’ self-rescue skill. 

Ages 5 Years - 12 Years

In Swim Strokes, having mastered the fundamentals, students learn additional water safety skills and build stroke technique, developing skills that prevent chronic disease, increase social-emotional and cognitive well-being, and foster a lifetime of physical activity! Swimmers will learn and practice 6 key strokes; Front crawl, back crawl, breaststroke, butterfly, sidestroke and elementary backstroke. By the end of this series of stages students will have built the endurance to swim 150 yards using any combination of learned strokes.

Ages 13 Years - Adult

Teens & Adults develop swim skills, independence, comfort, and stroke skills. Participants will build technique and confidence to improve personal safety around water, as well as efficiency in the water, endurance and speed. 

Please contact Karen Runkle by email, krunkle@cookcountyymca.org, or by calling 218-387-3386 ext. 610 for more information about teen & adult lesson options.